The online learning and outreach resource Ask A Biologist (AAB; http://www.askabiologist.org.uk/ ) has been operating for three years, and this paper reports our initial experience of running the site. To date, AAB has answered and archived online over 3,500 questions from the general public with contributions from more than 50 researchers, and attracted an estimated audience of half a million, all with relatively minimal investment. Simply, questions are posted by visitors to the site, and one or more of our registered academic experts then provide their answers which are available for all to see and browse. The system is simple and provides direct contact between the public and scientists on subjects that are guaranteed to be of interest. In this paper, we review the benefits and drawbacks of such a system based on our first-hand experiences, detailing how the site was originally conceived and built and how it operates. We offer this as a model for future projects and to highlight both the benefits and pitfalls of such a system.
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机译：在线学习和外联资源Ask A Biologist（AAB; http://www.askabiologist.org.uk/）已经运营了三年，本文报告了我们运营该网站的初步经验。迄今为止，AAB已在线回答并存档了来自公众的3500多个问题，其中有50多位研究人员做出了贡献，并吸引了大约100万观众，而这些投资都是相对较少的。只需将问题发布到网站的访问者中，然后由我们的一位或多位注册学术专家提供答案，供所有人查看和浏览。该系统非常简单，可以在公众和科学家之间就可以肯定感兴趣的主题提供直接联系。在本文中，我们根据第一手经验回顾了这种系统的优缺点，详细介绍了该站点的最初构想和构建方式以及其运行方式。我们将其作为未来项目的模型，并着重强调这种系统的优点和缺陷。
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